Not related by marriage to Osama bin Laden, despite testimony before the US Congress by former CIA Director James Woolsey. This falsehood was often repeated, and a number of US newspapers were forced to make corrections. In 2003, he sued Rachel Ehrenfeld over her book, Funding Evil, over insinuations that his family provided monetary support to terrorist organizations. Britain was chosen as the venue for the lawsuit because of their favorable libel laws, despite the book having been published in the United States. Bin Mahfouz won a default judgment, which ordered a £10,000 and destruction of all copies of the book. It should be noted that the merits of the case were never heard.